Review the Various Pension related issues requiring close monitoring: Minutes of the Meeting

Review the Various Pension related issues requiring close monitoring: Minutes of the Meeting under the Chairmenship of CGA:

Minutes of the Meeting

Please find enclosed herewith a copy of minutes of the Meeting held on 11th November, 2016 at 11.00 AM at O/o CGA under the chairmanship of controller General of Accounts to review the various pension – related issues requiring close monitoring by Pr.CCAs/CCAs/CAs for further necessary action.

A Meeting was held on 11.11.2016 at 11.00 AM under the Chairmanship of Controller General of Accounts in the Conference Hall ‘Swasti’ Mahalekha Niyantrak Bhawan, Office of CGA, Block-E, General Pool Office Complex, INA Colony, New Delhi to discuss pension related issues.

At the outset Chief Controller (Pension) welcomed all the participants. Controller General of Accounts in his opening remarks highlighted the need for quick processing of pension cases to avoid delays and prompt disposal of Pensioners’ grievances and advised all concerned CCAs/CAs that issues regarding pending grievances and delays in receipt of pension & revision cases from HOOs/DDOs should be raised in the Senior Officers’ Meetings chaired by respective Secretaries. He stressed that all Pr. CCAs/CCAs/CAs must use their dashboards provided by CPAO to monitor the disposal of grievances and uploading of lists of retiring employees and submission of pension cases.

List of participants is at Annexure-I.

Following agenda items were discussed and decisions taken:

1. Agenda Item No. 1-A: Pending cases of revision under OM dated 6th April, 2016: Delinking of revised pension from qualifying service of 33 years:

It was observed that total 88,550 cases were due for revision. Out of that 61,778 cases were already revised. However, still 26772 cases (30%) were pending for revision. Out of these cases, 2551 2 cases (95%) were pending with 9 ministries/ departments i.e. Home Affairs (23,307), Atomic Energy, Prasar Bharti, CBEC, I&B, Agriculture, HIED, Civil Aviation and Supply. Vide various OMs issued by CPAO, concerned CCAs/CAs were requested to revise pending cases urgently. CGA directed to finalize all the pending cases within one month. PAO wise pendencies were reviewed specifically for MHA & Atomic Energy and they were advised to regularly review the status with their high pendency PAOs.

2. Agenda Item No. 1-B: Status of revision of pending Pre-2006 pension cases

It was observed that total 4617 cases of Pre-2006 (1,199 of Pre-2006 & 3,418 of Pre-90) were pending for revision in civil Ministries/Departments. Highest pendencies pertained to Home Affairs (963), Atomic Energy (442), CBEC, HRD, and Prasar Bharti. It was informed by the CCAs/CAs that these cases are pending due to non-availability of required information either with PAOs or with HOOs & Banks in spite of all out efforts made. Following points decisions were taken:

(i) CPAO to prepare fresh list of live pending cases on the basis of e-scrolls received which may reduce the number of pending cases. This list would be provided to the concerned Ministries/Departments to again review the pendency and check the availability of records. If records are not available even after this exercise, the certificate of non availability of records would be furnished by concerned CCAs/CAs to CPAO to enable it to take further necessary action. If any pensioner represents for revision of his/her pension in future the same would be revised on the basis of records provided by him/her subject to verification of the record.

(ii) The above list would also be provided to concerned pension disbursing banks to check the genuineness of these pensioners on the basis of KYC records available with them and get the relevant records required for revision for such pensioners. The banks will also be asked to furnish the copies of life certificates received from these pensioners to CPAO by 15th Feb, 2017.

Action: All Concerned CCAs/CAs, CPAO and Banks

3. Agenda Item Number-2: Delay in receipt of fresh PPOs

It was observed that only 29 percent of fresh PPOs were received in CPAO from PAOs before the date of retirement of government servants. All the CCAs/CAs present in the meeting informed that delay in finalizing fresh pension cases is because of late submission of pension papers by the HOOs to concerned PAOs. However, status of Atomic Energy was quite satisfactory where 85% fresh PPOs were received before the date of retirement. The Joint CA, Atomic Energy informed that they are regularly reviewing the status of receipt of fresh pension cases with the department and in case of any problem; they are holding the meetings with senior officers so that timely receipt of cases in PAOs may be ensured. CGA appreciated the efforts of Atomic Energy and advised other CCAs/CAs also to take up the matter regularly with concerned Administrative Authorities i.e. HODs/DOOs/DDOs for receiving the pension cases in PAOs as per prescribed time schedule and use the dashboards provided under WRPS to monitor the delays.

4. Agenda Item Number-3: Seeding of Aadhaar

Significant progress was observed in respect of Aadhaar Seeding in fresh PPOs by the Ministries/Departments as overall seeding percentage had reached 61%. Ministries/Departments where seeding percent was low were Home Affairs, PPG and Supply. In some Ministries/Departments, like Health & Family Welfare, HRD, Prasar Bharti and UD seeding was more than 90%, CCA, MHA was requested to ensure increasing the number of Aadhaar seeding in fresh PPOs as the low percentage of IVIHA had brought down overall percentage very significantly. Representative of PPG&P pointed out that low percentage of Aadhaar seeding in PPG&P was due to low Aadhaar seeding by Director of Accounts, Cabinet Secretariat (DACS) which uses PAO code of PPG&P but they are not in the administrative control of CA, PPG&P. On this issue, it was decided that while CPAO may take up the matter with DACS; PPG&P was also advised to coordinate with DACS to resolve this issue on regular basis. Most of the CCAs/CAs informed that PAOs are indicating Aadhaar numbers in fresh PPOs wherever the same is made available by the concerned HOOs and efforts are made to make it 100%.

5. Agenda Item Number-4: Web Responsive Pensioners Service:

A. Grievances: Under WRPS, total 570 grievances were received, out of that 375 pertained to the concerned 15 ministries. Out of these 375 grievances, 70 grievances were replied back by PAOs to CPAO and 56 settled. 305 grievances were still pending with PAOs. CGA advised all concerned CCAs/CAs to review the status of pending grievances through WRPS on weekly basis and settle the grievances in time bound manner. CC (P) also requested CCAs/CAs to regularly review the pending grievances available under their dashboards under WRPS and ensure not to allow any pendency beyond 30 days. All the CCAs/CAs assured to regularly review the pending grievances and take necessary action to bring down the number of pending grievances.

B. Quarterly List of retiring Employees: Lists of only 1734 retiring employees were uploaded so far by the PAOs of concerned Ministries/Departments. Since annually about 35 thousand of fresh pension cases are received in CPAO, this small number of uploading of lists showed that still either many PAOs are not uploading complete lists of retiring employees or not uploading at all.

To ensure the timely submission of list of retirees by the HOOs to the concerned PAOs the CCAs/CAs present in the meeting were advised to take up the matter with their HODs on regular basis to get the complete list of retiring employees wherever the same is not being provided by the HOOs. CGA advised CCAs/CAs to pay special attention to those PAOs where details of not even single employee has been uploaded so far.

6. Agenda Item Number-5: Discrepancies in the bookie of Expenditure under Pension grant:

It was observed that there were many discrepancies in the booking of expenditure under pension grant No.35 in the year-2016-17 (up to 2nd quarter) by many Ministries/Departments i.e. expenditure in excess of budget, expenditure without budget, misclassification between charged and voted expenditure, expenditure booked in minus etc. An OM dated 11.11.2016 with details of discrepancies had already been issued to CCAs/CAs. All concerned CCAs/CAs were advised to regularly review the booking of expenditure under various heads of pension grant in their Ministries/Departments with the help of reports available under e-lekha/PFMS and ensure to avoid any discrepancies in booking under pension grant.

7. During the meeting, CCA, Home Affairs and CA, Agriculture requested CC (P) to organize workshop for their pension processing PAOs in CPAO on WRPS and various pension related issues. It was agreed that workshop for PAOs of Ministry of Agriculture would be organized on 18th November, 2016 and for MHA on 1st December, 2016 at CPAO. Other Ministries were also requested to work out schedule of workshop for their PAOs in consultation with CPAO.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the chair.

Source: www.cpao.nic.in